Beacon - a Steampunk Neverland Story
by Arielle Seidman
Summary: To amuse them at bedtime, orphaned Wendy tells her sisters a fairytale about Neverland; about the magnificent island far away where children reign supreme in little clockwork villages and golden flying ships roam the skies. There, a courageous Girl Who Never Grew Up battles Captain Victoria Hook and her band of malevolent sky pirates, and no little girl is ever, ever lonely.


**Author's Note:** I am taking a break from my perfectly legitimate editing job to write something fun and fantastical. If you enjoy, please do consider leaving a review or even sending a private message; I always love the chance to hear from other readers and writers like myself. Thanks very much!

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 **Prologue**

"Far, far away," explained sixteen-year-old Wendy to her sisters, "past the second star on the right and straight on until you reach the morning, there is a beautiful place called Neverland, where you can see miles and miles of clear blue sky. There, children like us are in charge of the world. They all have their own beautiful flying ships, all of bronze and gold, and they have wonderful, exciting adventures together all day long, until they're tired and want a rest. It's called Neverland, you see, because the children there are never, never lonely."

They were all three curled up on the floor, trying to squeeze their entire bodies onto their small, thin brown blankets. Miss Merrilee's Orphanage for Young Ladies was noisy, even at night, with children all around failing to sleep, squabbling and chattering away at each other, well aware that The Governess wasn't around. She wouldn't be coming to check on them until perhaps seven or eight in the morning, when they'd have chores to do. Until then, it was storytime or playtime.

Wendy's youngest sister, six-year-old Gussie was bright-eyed and wide awake, while ten-year-old Judith looked as though she was making valiant efforts not to nod off.

"Wendy," asked Gussie eagerly, "does Neverland have a king, or a queen, or a prince, or a princess?"

"Of course not," sighed Judith. "She already said that there weren't any adults in Neverland, remember? Kings and queens have to be adults. Pay attention."

"Princes or princesses, then?" Gussie was adamant. She liked princesses.

Wendy shook her head.

"There aren't any princesses, Gussie," she explained, "but there is a very smart little girl named Polly Pan who helps to make sure that everyone in Neverland is happy as can be. She flies around in her ship from port to port, and she knows all of the mermaids by name-!"

"Mermaids!" Gussie clapped her hands in delight.

"-and," Wendy went on, "she's friends with all the natives who live in camping tents on the West side of the island."

"Natives." Judith didn't look impressed. "If there are native people in Neverland, then I assume that means Little Miss Polly isn't a native? Where's she from, then, and where do all the other children come from, if they aren't born on the island?"

Judith gave Wendy a challenging look, obviously rather impressed with herself. Judith read a lot of old books donated to the orphanage library, but never storybooks. She liked what she called "real life books," about the native peoples of the Americas, and about the way different machines worked, and so on.

"Polly," replied Wendy, "comes from London, just like us. In fact…" She glanced over her shoulder, then leaned in a little closer to her sisters. Gussie scooted across until she was almost in Wendy's lap, and even Judith moved nearer, her interest in the story getting the better of her. "In fact,' repeated Wendy, "Polly came from this very orphanage!"

Gussie gasped. Judith frowned.

"It was a long, long time ago," said Wendy, "but once, Polly Pan of Neverland was a little girl just like you, or me, and she had no mother or father to turn to. Miss Merrilee hated her even more than the other children, and The Governess was especially unkind to her, because Polly was very, very smart…just like you, Judy."

She smiled at Judith, and Judith coughed, looking ever so slightly embarrassed.

"Everyone at the orphanage treated her terribly," continued Wendy, "and they gave her even less to eat than everyone else, and made her sleep all alone, in the corner, without anyone to talk to. Poor Polly got so very lonely that one day, they say, she got up, walked out of the orphanage and just flew away…right up into the sky!"

Judith sighed and turned over on the blanket, closing her eyes.

"They say," Wendy went on, "that Polly flew and flew, all the way to the docks. She touched one of the boats moored in the harbor, and the boat started glowing gold and floated up into the sky, just like magic! She sailed the boat back to the orphanage, and when she got there Miss Merrilee and the Governess were still asleep, of course, so she took as many of the girls as she could on the ship with her, and they all sailed away to Neverland…never to return."

"Wow." Gussie smiled. "Magic!"

Judith yawned dramatically, then sat up again and shook her head at Gussie.

"Those kids probably all died," she said bluntly. "That's the kind of thing they say when a bunch of kids all get sick at the same time. They say stuff like, 'oh, those girls went away to a magical land and won't ever come back! Isn't that nice for them!' It's just like when people talk about Heaven. It's not really real. It's all just to make us chidlren feel better, isn't it?"

"Judy!" Wendy was shocked. "How could you say a horrible thing like that?"

Gussie's face fell. "That's…they didn't really die, did they, Wendy?" They went to Neverland, right? To play with the mermaids?"

"There's no such thing as mermaids, Gussie." Judith lay back down again. "Stop telling her silly stuff, Wendy; she'll figure it out one day, and then it'll just be worse. There's no such thing as magic or flying ships, or girls that get away. We're going to be here forever."

Wendy opened her mouth to respond, but Gussie had already started to cry. Judith winced, looked momentarily guilty, and then just frowned and shook her head again.

"We're not going to Neverland, Gussie," she said. "Sorry. Get some sleep, okay?"

Gussie fell asleep a few minutes later in Wendy's arms, still sniffling and snuffling a little bit, her eyes and nose wet. Wendy wiped her face with a dirty handkerchief, bit her lip and glanced over her shoulder at the large orphanage windows.

Outside, it was raining. The smog-choked skies were dark, as always, and vague sorts of shadows moved around in the gloom. Wendy imaged that one of them was a flying ship, swooping through the sky towards the orphanage, preparing to take her and her sisters away to a place that smelled better and felt more like a real home.

It was probably, she decided, really a bird or maybe even some poor person's hat that had escaped in a gust of wind, or something.

"Past the second star to the right," she whispered, "and straight on until the morning…"

In the London night, Wendy couldn't even see the stars.

Eventually, she too fell asleep, lulled by the sounds of her sisters' snores.

As she dozed, she dreamed of Neverland.

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 **Author's End Note:** Just a quick prologue tonight, as I've got to get back to work, but I look forward to updating with chapter one very soon! Thanks very much for taking the time to read, adn I hope you enjoy our little steampunk fairytale!


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